


Eine Anderer Anfang

by Ceris_Malfoy



Series: Eine Wendung des Schicksals [1]
Category: Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: 'cause that's the way he rolls, AU!G1 - Freeform, Gen, I swear, IDW/Cartoon Fusion, M/M, Older-than-dirt!Starscream, Pre-Earth, Pre-War, but megatron still tops, it's IDW's fault., raised-by-Starscream!Megatron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-18
Updated: 2013-01-18
Packaged: 2017-11-25 23:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/644136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceris_Malfoy/pseuds/Ceris_Malfoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Starscream is older than dirt, and a young Megatron's hand is forced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eine Anderer Anfang

“Student,” and from the shadows of the darkened hall came the cold voice of the only mech he truly respected: Lord Starscream, Vosnian Commander of the Cybertronian Air Force. The seeker was beyond intelligent, having no less than twenty-three Masteries in various sciences, and Megatron greatly suspected Starscream had another twelve, at least. The seeker was a qualified field-medic, a previous deep-space explorer, and an much-accomplished warrior and tactician. He was the fastest flier in recorded history, and suspected of having processor speeds to match.

Starscream was also accused of at least ninety murders, countless counts of attempted murders, and fifteen counts of high treason every other vorn or so, but nevertheless still remained secure in a position of power.

Was the seeker dangerous? Oh yes, very much so.

Megatron turned, internally wincing at his ill fortune. Of all the times for the Vosnian Commander to corner him, it had to be when he was emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted. Starscream had little patience for weakness of any type, and Megatron had learned long ago – at great pains – to keep his exhaustion off his facial plating. “Mentor,” he returned stoically.

From the shadows the seeker lord came, and not for the first time, Megatron wondered what manner of power the seeker had. Starscream was the oldest living mech in recorded history, yet looked as if he was barely out if his youngling years. It was only the seeker’s cold crimson gaze that belied his looks – there was the ancient weight of the many years within that burning gaze that was even now studying him, looking for clues and slight nuances in his frame that only four decavorns of close proximity could reveal – and that only the seeker could see. “You are tired, student,” Starscream said quietly. “Come. Sit, and talk with me.”

Starscream moved silently and gracefully through the manor’s halls, leading Megatron over to a quiet corner in the rec room. He never once looked back, confident that Megatron would follow him. And why shouldn’t he be? Megatron was still his apprentice, was still in awe and slight fear of him, even if Megatron was no longer a youngling capable of being intimidated into silence with a look alone.

Megatron watched him move as he always did – with awe, admiration, and the faintest twinge of lust. Despite the fact that Starscream was a seeker, and the acknowledged master of sky and space, he lacked the gracelessness that other seekers had on the ground. It was something that Megatron had noted early on – Starscream moved the same way on the land as he did in the air; all grace and dignity and deadly intent.

So Megatron followed, a little too quickly, a little too eagerly, as he always had. Starscream was dangerous, intelligent, and entirely too volatile to take lightly, but he was a tempting danger all the same. He sat across from the seeker, his movements considerably less graceful considering his larger, bulkier frame. He waited, carefully avoiding the Commander’s steely gaze. He mentally prepared himself for the battle that he knew was coming. He had known for some time that he was quickly surpassing his teacher in strength and sheer ruthlessness; had known that while Starscream may be the living nightmare of almost every mech alive today – and not without good reason – the seeker had little, if any, of the populace’s respect. Not like he did.

He had also known that word would get back to Starscream eventually about what he was doing. He had known that the status quo between them couldn’t remain forever – sooner or later he’d have to fight Starscream and prove his dominance over the ancient being. It was inevitable. He just hadn’t planned on it happening so soon. He had hoped for a few more vorns before he had to fight Starscream.

When he had been a mere youngling, Megatron had been singled out by the seeker. No one knew why, and Starscream _never_ revealed his intentions to anything he did. Megatron had been confused and unsure, especially considering the vast amounts of gossip surrounding the mysterious death of the seeker’s previous student, Skyfire.

Younglings taken as apprentices by Starscream didn’t tend to live long, whether through their own folly or through Starscream’s temper, no one seemed to know, but those who did.... Well. There was a reason that despite the fact that his students didn’t live long, no one objected too much when he chose one.

_“I’ll tell you this now, youngling, and I expect to be obeyed without question.”_

_Megatron, barely out of his second frame, was afraid. He had heard the whispers, the quiet taunts – they said he was as good as dead, that none of the Vosnian Commander’s students lived to see their final upgrade. Nevertheless, he stood still before seeker. He did not know what was so special about him that the Commander had singled him out – there were many more younglings that were faster, stronger, and more intelligent than he was. And it wasn’t because of his looks – he was well aware that he wasn’t exactly was one could call attractive._

_“I am not by nature a patient mech. Nor am I a kind one. Should you choose to accept my instruction, you will find the pace hard, difficult, and without mercy.” Crimson optics narrowed and moonlight-white wings hitched high in arrogant pride. “I will demand your best efforts at all times. If you disappoint me, you will be punished. Is this understood?”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“I have tried many times to pass down my knowledge and skills to those deemed worthy by others. They have all failed both my expectations and my patience.” There was a feral grin that left no doubt in Megatron’s processor that Starscream was a predator at spark. “You will hear rumors and gossip about both myself and my previous students. Trash that most of these rumors are, they are nonetheless useful to me, and you will do nothing to discourage them. Is this understood?”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“I will teach you more than what will be found in the curriculum of the Academy, though I expect you to attend that as well. I will teach you how to survive, and more importantly, how to **succeed**. You show no great skill, no sharp wit or keen ambition – doubtless others have already dismissed you as nothing special.”_

_Megatron could not hold back the flinch the seeker’s words brought._

_“However, they will find that they were fools to think so.”_

_Megatron stared in shock at the seeker, whose optics were burning brightly, a wicked smile curving the thin lips._

_“You, who have nothing worthwhile to them will be the greatest I’ve ever taught.” There was a slight pause. “Remember this, and remember this well, youngling. When it comes down to survival and victory, there is no distinction between makes, models, or processor speeds. What matters most, what **will** matter most, is your **determination** to succeed **no matter the cost**. Now, I will ask this only once. Do you want this?” _

_Megatron never even considered hesitating. “Yes, sir.”_

“Student,” Starscream said sharply, though still quietly, with just enough heat behind the tone to reveal that however collected he may look, Starscream was angry.

Megatron did wince this time, and immediately brought up his optics to meet his mentor’s directly. He had learned over the course of several vorns the best ways to handle Starscream in all of his various moods – and it was a good thing he did. There was more than one occasion that the seeker would have offlined him had he not held his frame in just the right way, if he had not used just the right tone of voice, or if he had made himself a target. No one had ever directly accused the seeker of being glitched in the processor, but Megatron knew that was mostly because no one wanted to see what would happen if they did. Did Starscream have a temper? In spades. Megatron sometimes privately thought that even Unicron would quail before the seeker once he got started.

Unfortunately, it looked like Starscream was bordering on one of his more violent moods this evening. Which meant that he, even as exhausted as he was, was definitely going to be fighting the seeker tonight. He had hoped he might diffuse the situation enough to post-pone this until after he got some recharge at least, but apparently the gods hated him.

“I have heard a great deal of things that I wish you to explain to me,” Starscream started. “Particularly about an incident in Kaon. I believe Skywarp said there were casualties?”

Megatron wanted to sigh. Of course it was Skywarp. It was _always_ Skywarp, who seemed to feel that Megatron was a personal affront to his very being. He remained silent for a moment, trying to figure out just how to phrase what happened without triggering Starscream’s temper.

Crimson optics narrowed at his silence. “Megatron.”

Megatron’s spark sputtered. As long as he had known the seeker, never _once_ had Starscream called him by his given designation. It was always youngling or student. “Sir?” he responded cautiously.

“I have not the time or the patience this night to play games with you,” the seeker snapped. “You will tell me the truth about the incident an orn ago, and you will do it _now_.”

Megatron sighed and slumped in his seat. Slag it all. He stared resolutely at the table between them. “There was a minor riot in Kaon. The mechs there are already on the verge of starving, and the council’s Energon rationing seems to have hit them the hardest.” He paused, uncertainly. It wasn’t often that many things escaped Starscream’s notice, but nothing had been said for quite some time of his current …activities in Kaon. He wondered idly if Starscream truly knew what he did there, or if Skywarp had said just enough to stir up trouble.

“I’ve been going to Kaon for some time now,” he started, daring to raise his wary optics to Starscream’s. The seeker’s eyes were intent on his, his facial plates frozen in a mask of polite blankness. Megatron was not reassured. He had seen firsthand Starscream rip out another’s spark with that same look on his face. “I’ve been fighting in the gladiator games. An orn ago, one of the other gladiators was taken out before the masses and would have been executed.”

He offlined his optics, seeing again the mech who he had been somewhat friendly towards dragged forward like an errant youngling. “He was accused of spreading dissent amongst the populace, of leading the riots, and of purposely encouraging others to break the laws that ‘have safely governed our world for eons’.”

“You interfered.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” Megatron murmured.

“And this mech that you defended, was he worth it?” There was something new in the seeker’s voice, a strange tone Megatron had never heard before.  
  
Megatron on-lined his optics and stared incomprehensively at his mentor, absolutely baffled. “Sir?”

“I’ve known about your trips for quite some time, Megatron. They do not upset me – you are a fighter, a warrior, and I will not fault you for seeking an outlet for that urge,” the seeker splayed his fingers wide setting his hands upon the table between them and leaning forward. “What upsets me,” he hissed, “what _bothers_ me, Megatron, is the events of today. You have defied the council publicly, brought arms against mechs who are sworn to uphold the council’s law, and defended a mech that as far as the council is concerned is treasonous.” Starscream’s voice was growing more and more heated. Unlike most mech’s, who began to shout when angry, Starscream’s voice dropped into a quiet, intense purr.

Megatron could not help the tell-tale flaring of his energy field – he never could when that particular tone was used.

“I see I have once again been let down.” Starscream stood sharply, clawed hands flexing. “Once again I am left with no other options.”

Megatron also stood, slower and more cautious. This did not sound good. In fact, this sounded awfully like…

_“You useless, bumbling idiot!”_  
  
 _Megatron froze, and glanced behind him. He was six vorns into his apprenticeship with Starscream, and only one of three mechs so singled out for a long time. The second had deactivated himself – by accident the official report claimed, but Megatron had seen the mech eyeing the acidic solvents in Starscream’s lab for too long to truly believe it.The third mech, another seeker by the designation of Bladewing, was …not adjusting well to the situation._

_Megatron made sure no one was watching, and then made his way quietly over to the slightly open doorway. Carefully he peeked in, and nearly gave himself away by gasping._

_Starscream stood tall, wings trembling in the force of his fury, clawed servos twitching madly. Before him cowered Bladewing._

_“Please, Commander, I didn’t think –”_

_“That’s right, you didn’t. You didn’t think about what you were doing, about how this is going to reflect on me. You glitch! Do you really think I was going to let you get away with it?” One of Starscream’s servos reached out and grabbed Bladewing by the neck, and shook him, hard. “I told you once before, Bladewing, I see **everything** , and I hear **everything** when it comes to **my** students. Your actions today are nothing short of high treason. Do you know what the penalty for high treason is, you little fool?”_

_Bladewing was struggling, trying desperately to free himself from the Commander’s tight grip._

_“Do you know what the penalty is for any who are caught consorting with mechs who commit high treason? Did you not stop to think that by doing what you did while under my tutelage would implicate me as well?” An ugly sneer crossed the seeker’s face._

_“It seems that once again, I am left with no other options. Bladewing, creation of Solartwist and Moonglow, you have shamed my name and my reputation for the last time.”_

_Megatron could only watch in stupefied horror as Starscream calmly tore open the screaming, writhing seeker’s spark chamber and ripped out the mech’s spark._

He narrowed his optics. Unlike poor Bladewing, and countless others he had seen pass before his optics, he was not a terrified youngling. He wasn’t an unskilled mech by any stretch of the imagination, either. “Starscream,” he said, for the first time in his life calling the other by his rightful designation. “I interfered. I alone interfered with the execution. But I was not alone in that riot. All of them, the gladiators, the pleasure bots, the pit fighters, the energon miners, _all of them_ followed my lead this morning.”  
  
Starscream’s optics were aflame with rage and something else, something strange and new.

“Every last one of them followed _me_. There is not a mech or femme in Kaon that is happy with the council. Until your brother showed up, there was not a mech or femme who was not singing my praises for standing up and doing something about it.”

“And you think I’m supposed to be _happy_ about this?” Starscream growled. “The council will be on my door by tomorrow morning. They will be demanding either your corpse or both of ours.”  
  
Megatron growled back. “I will not let you deactivate me, Starscream. There is a war coming, and I will be at the head of it.”  
  
Starscream sneered. “A war? _Please_. I have heard those words before, many a time, and look what those words have brought: a council so paranoid they jump at shadows, a long line of dead students and dead innocents, and the unconditional slaughter of any connected to them.” He stepped forward, wings hiked high in agitation. “I have heard those words pass many a mech’s lips, and have watched as every last one of them _failed_.”

“I will not fail,” Megatron said, quiet and determined. He was as prepared as he was going to get this night. He knew he had only one shot at this – Starscream was battle tested, and very fast. However, he was also slighter of build and slightly smaller in height – if Megatron could just get a hold on the seeker, brute strength alone would ensure his victory, and hopefully Starscream’s cooperation.

The seeker was much too valuable to kill, after all.

Though he would, if Starscream refused to submit.

Starscream’s claws flexed, and then it was on. Megatron could barely keep up with the seeker’s movements – he was fast, much faster then Megatron had thought. Already the seeker had landed several potentially-fatal hits, and he knew that he didn’t have much time before the hits _were_ fatal. With a deep growl, Megatron deliberately left a hole in his defenses, allowing the seeker to target his spark-chamber; swiftly trapping the seeker’s hands in with one hand and tearing at a wing with the other when he did. Starscream shrieked, optics whiting out in the force of the pain.  
  
One of the earliest lessons he had learned in the arenas were the fragility of seeker’s wings. It was a lesson he fully intended to utilize.

Quickly he spun the seeker around, shoved him to the floor, and straddled him, using the weight of his bulkier, heavier frame to hold the seeker down. Starscream started cursing as he promptly started struggling to show Megatron off, and Megatron was surprised to note that some of the curses the seeker used were …rather inventive. He was not quite as surprised to note that his energy field was flaring tellingly, and that he very much wanted this seeker beneath him on a regular basis. But that was for later, much later.

“Listen to me, Starscream,” he said sharply, and to his surprise, the seeker stopped cursing and moving. “There _will_ be a war. There _will_ be change. I have already begun recruiting.” He paused, and considered his options. “I will turn those broken, hopeless mechs into proud warriors, and I will lead them to victory. I want you to help me.”

Starscream was quiet and still beneath him.

“You turned a youngling with no skills or talents into a strong warrior with the determination and ruthlessness to do what needs to be done. You taught me how to survive, how to fight, and how to kill.” He smiled, and deliberately mimicked the seeker’s own purring tone from earlier. “You have taught me well, too well, Starscream. I will leave this place with my spark intact. The only matter is whether I leave it with you at my side as the Second in Command and Air Commander of my growing army, or if I leave it with your spark casing in my servos.”

There was silence for a moment. “If you fail, Megatron, if you ever start to slip, I want you to understand I will not show mercy,” the seeker finally warned, voice a quiet rasp. “I _will_ have your spark, in one form or another.”

Megatron grinned. “I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Starscream.”

**Author's Note:**

> In All Hail Megatron, there was a conversation between Megatron and Starscream in which Starscream said, "Your memory fails you, Megatron. I was there even before there was a 'beginning'. Before you."
> 
> So, of course, my mind went a little hog-wild with all the possibilities. My personal head-cannon with Starscream's "imortality" is that he is the spawn of Unicron (in whichever format works best for the 'verse I build at the time), so while I don't get into that at all in this particular series, it tends to bleed out in that Starscream becomes more than just a psychotic bitch, but more of a creepy, I'mma-jack-your-shit-up psychotic bitch. XD 
> 
> This was originally posted on Fanfiction.net under the name A Different Beginnning, but I kinda rewrote a lot of it, and will be doing so for all the stories in this series. So, enjoy?
> 
> P.S. - Title is curtesy of Google Translate, so if it's wrong, please inform me ASAP so that I can fix it. It's supposed to be "Another Beginning" in German.


End file.
